Chicago Wants to Teach Your 5-Year-Old About Sex

At some point before beginning college, everyone must go through some form of an awkward sex-ed class. Most students take this class during the later years of their high school careers. However, the Chicago Public School System wants its students get this knowledge as early as kindergarten. While kindergarten might seem like too early to introduce children to sex, Chicago's new policy offers a positive way of teaching children important and necessary information they'll need outside of arithmetic, state capitals, and parts of a plant cell.

There are many strong points of this policy. First, the sex-ed classes will be tasteful. Beginning in kindergarten, children will learn the basic foundational concepts of sex: names of anatomical parts, the differences between "good" and "bad" touching, the concept of reproduction, healthy relationships, and so on. As children progress through the grades, the content slowly becomes more mature and age-appropriate, touching on subjects like HIV, puberty, and contraception. Furthermore, while these lessons will be informative, they won't disrupt regular school curriculum. Grades kindergarten through fourth are required to have at least 300 minutes of sex-ed classes a year, about 30 minutes a month. Parents are able to opt their child out of the program.

This policy is a good idea, even if some parents and certain conservatives feel uncomfortable about it. Instead of being told the old "stork" tale or the classic "bird and the bees" talk, children can now get truthful answers to their insatiable curiosities. They'll be able to understand why they can't touch people in certain places, and that it's not okay for people to touch them either. Many children and teenagers don't understand the nature and consequences of sex because their parents didn't explain it to them. These classes will hopefully fill the gap.